Cortical thickness and resting‐state cardiac function across the lifespan: A cross‐sectional pooled mega‐analysis

Abstract

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting‐state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT. Previous studies have been limited by small sample sizes, which impede the assessment of sex differences and aging effects on the association between ANS function and CT. To overcome these limitations, 20 groups worldwide contributed data collected under similar protocols of CT assessment and HR/HRV recording to be pooled in a mega‐analysis (N = 1,218 (50.5% female), mean age 36.7 years (range: 12–87)). Findings suggest a decline in HRV as well as CT with increasing age. CT, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex, explained additional variance in HRV, beyond the effects of aging. This pattern of results may suggest that the decline in HRV with increasing age is related to a decline in orbitofrontal CT. These effects were independent of sex and specific to HRV; with no significant association between CT and HR. Greater CT across the adult lifespan may be vital for the maintenance of healthy cardiac regulation via the ANS—or greater cardiac vagal activity as indirectly reflected in HRV may slow brain atrophy. Findings reveal an important association between CT and cardiac parasympathetic activity with implications for healthy aging and longevity that should be studied further in longitudinal research.

Increasing coordination and responsivity of emotion-related brain regions with a heart rate variability biofeedback randomized trial

“…Hundreds of previous studies have identified vagal HRV (usually assessed using HF-HRV or RMSSD) at rest as one of the best indicators of well-being 28-30 . In addition, individual differences in vagal HRV have been linked with brain structures and circuits associated with emotion regulation 3,20,31,32 . However, we need more than observational correlations to better understand the causal dynamics of the relationships.…”

Aging and cerebrovascular health: Structural, functional, cognitive, and methodological implications

“…Resting‐state autonomic nervous system activity, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV) has been associated with cortical thinning, but with some mixed results, partly due to relatively small sample sizes that prevented a close examination of sex‐ and age‐related individual differences. In a very large empirical study combining HRV and cortical thickness data from many existing samples (for a total N > 1,200) Koenig and colleagues (2021) confirm the existence of an association between HRV and cortical thickness, especially in orbitofrontal areas, and discuss the possible causal direction and interpretation of this association.…”

Stress and aging: A neurovisceral integration perspective

“…Unlike the ACC, cortical thickness of the left lateral OFC survived adjustment for age. Thus, the age‐related decline in cortical thickness in the more superior regions may contribute to the age‐related decline in vagally mediated HRV (Yoo et al, 2018) as recently replicated in a mega‐analysis (Koenig et al., 2020). In a recent mega‐analysis of data from over 1,200 men and women drawn from 20 research groups from across the globe it was found that whereas both RMSSD and cortical thickness decreased with age, RMSSD was positively correlated with OFC cortical thickness independent of gender and age.…”

“…Changes in Brain Structure and Heart Function across the life span; idealized illustration of potential effects of stress and interventions; adapted from Koenig et al. (2020); Created with BioRender.com…”